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In what could’ve been a scene from any number of modern-day mob movies, Joseph Lanni of Staten Island became a walking cliché, the Justice Department said in announcing an organized-crime takedown that stretched all the way to Sicily.
Lanni and fellow Staten Islander Vincent “Vinny Slick” Minsquero “became belligerent” after being asked to leave Roxy’s Bar and Grille in Toms River during an argument with another patron the Friday of this past Labor Day weekend, prosecutors said.
Minsquero “damaged a painting and punched a wall,” they said.
Lanni also allegedly told employees that he was a Gambino and would “burn this place down with you in it.”
Police who were called told the pair not to return.
Both men then went to a service station across the street, where Lanni – also known as “Joe Brooklyn” – was seen on surveillance video about to pump gas into a container he’d just bought before being discouraged by his pal and an attendant, a complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn alleges.
What followed, it says, are 39 calls from Lanni to the restaurant, including one that a Toms River police officer recorded on a bodycam.
“Stop calling my business,” the owner reportedly tells the hotheaded capo.
“Apologize to me,” Lanni says. “Beg for my forgiveness ... Beg for my forgiveness. Say, ‘I’m sorry, Joe.’”
It didn’t end there.
The owner and his wife were leaving Roxy’s when two unidentified men attacked them in the parking lot.
One of them got into the owner’s car through the passenger side, punched him in the head and held a knife to his throat, federal authorities said. The other threw the man’s wife to the ground.
Both assailants then slashed the car’s tires and fled.
Lanni and Minsquero are among 10 men – including two from New Jersey – who are charged with a series of fiction-like “violent extortions, assaults, arson [and] witness retaliation,” among other alleged crimes aimed at controlling New York City-area demolition and carting businesses, the indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn alleges.
Diego Tantillo, 48, of Freehold, and Vito Rappa, 46, of East Brunswick, were among those charged in the 16-count indictment.
Italian authorities in Palermo, Sicily charged six other individuals with similar offenses, said Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
According to Peace, those busted in Brooklyn belong to the tri-state area Gambino Crime Family, which for years had been run by John Gotti before his 2002 death in prison.
Among other crimes, he said, the defendants targeted demolition companies and that old Mafia standby: waste management.
They demanded protection payments with threats of violence, rigged bids for pricey demo contracts, stole and then laundered money from unions and employee benefit plans, carried guns and threatened witnesses, Peace said.
One extortion scheme cited in the federal filings involved a New York City-area carting company operator who prosecutors said was threatened with a bat, had a fire set on the steps of his home, saw one of his associates assaulted and found several of his trucks damaged.
Several trademarked no-show jobs were also cited in the complaint.
The restaurant incident was among several “uncharged violent acts and threats” that warranted holding the defendants until trial, said Peace, the U.S. attorney.
A federal judge in Brooklyn ordered Lanni and two other men held without bail on Wednesday, Nov. 8. Minsquero, meanwhile, was among those granted release in 24 hours with bonds of up to $1 million pending an appeal by federal prosecutors.
Those charged locally:
- JOSEPH LANNI (also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino”), 52, of Staten Island;
- DIEGO TANTILLO (also known as “Danny” and “Daniel”), 48, of Freehold;
- VITO RAPPA (also known as “Vi”), 46, of East Brunswick;
- ROBERT BROOKE, 55, of New York, New York;
- SALVATORE DILORENZO, 66, of Oceanside;
- ANGELO GRADILONE (also known as “Fifi”), 57, of Staten Island;
- KYLE JOHNSON (also known as “Twin”), 46, of the Bronx;
- JAMES LAFORTE (also known as “Jimmy”), also 46, of New York, New York;
- VINCENT MINSQUERO (also known as “Vinny Slick”), 36, of Staten Island;
- FRANCESCO VICARI (also known as “Frank” and “Uncle Ciccio”), 46, of Elmont.
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